Greengiant

We now have 13 shows under our belt, each time, we have a list of tweaks and improvements to incorporate before the next outing. One such improvement is a simple operator notification that a train is ready indicator. We do not run to a sequence or timetable, but just wing it and go with the flow. An issue we (mainly me) did have was forgetting if a loaded or unloaded train had been sent under the crane. Because everything runs slowly, it can take a while for a train to be loaded/unloaded. Also talking to spectators which I enjoy, distracts me from what is going on, but talking is a vital part of the showing experience. The up shot of all this is when I look under the crane I cannot remember was the train I sent loaded or unloaded and ready to depart? Sometimes your progress is prevented by a lorry blocking the exit, so you go back to shunting the front line instead. I changed the operating method by adding a simple rule, empty trains from factory to crane and loaded trains from crane to factory. Which worked well, but I kept forgetting to check if the train had been loaded and move it out of the way. We do not shout to each other when a train is ready, it is usually a knowing look or nervous twitch which alerts you! To improve on this we simply cut two new control panels on the laser, which included space for two extra switches and yellow LEDs (see photo below). Now when the crane operator is ready for the train to be moved, they press the switch next to the relevant track the train is on and the LED flashes on the crane end control panel and the factory end panel. I take control of the train and press the same switch on the factory panel and this cancels the flashing LED. All very simple and basic I know, but when you are operating 7-8 hours a day over two days, every little helps. A short video demonstrating the procedure. Martin

This Sunday we had a photo shoot for Hornby magazine, for those that have done these you will know what a long day that can be to get the right shots, plus some video. They always seem to come up with angles and views we had never considered. Looking forward to seeing the results, just the article to write now! Martin

We had a great time with The Yard at Ally Pally, very pleased with all the kind comments we received, much appreciated, makes all the hard work worthwhile. The lorries and crane were popular, the supplied sturdy show barriers proved popular for leaning and watching the layout in operation. The show Stewards were all very helpful. The only downside, which is entirely our own doing, we did not get much chance to see the rest of the show, the layout needs constant operating, there is nothing you can just leave running. Will rely on the photos and YouTube videos posted over the coming days to catch up. The weekend is catching up with me today, will leave it a while before working through the small snagging list, ready for the next show in July. Martin

We had a great time with The Yard, very pleased with all the kind comments we received, much appreciated, makes all the hard work worthwhile. The lorries and crane were popular, the supplied sturdy show barriers proved popular for leaning and watching the layout in operation. The show Stewards were all very helpful. The only downside, which is entirely our own doing, we did not get much chance to see the rest of the show, the layout needs constant operating, there is nothing you can just leave running. Will rely on the photos and YouTube videos posted over the coming days to catch up. The weekend is catching up with me today, will leave it a while before working through the small snagging list, ready for the next show in July. Martin

Thanks for the link, I was in Paddock exhibitor parking, my car is listed as owing one hour at £1.50 plus £0.20 ‘Convenience Fee’, on Saturday for 17:29 to 18:29. 17:29 is when we drove out of the carpark to go home at the end of the show! Martin

We were not allowed in the North car park we were in yesterday when we set up and were directed to exhibitors parking in the Paddock car park and got the shuttle bus back. Was not expecting to have to pay for parking and so far haven’t. We had a busy day with The Yard, on the go all day. Very pleased with the feedback we got. Martin

We are all set up in the Great Hall at Alexandra Palace, all very easy, especially being able to take our vehicles into the hall. Back home by 4pm, looking forward to the two days of the show. Very pleased with the amount of space we have. Only downside was the London traffic! Martin

Layout all packed up and ready for loading tomorrow morning, then off to Ally Pally to be there, hopefully by 12 noon to set up. Martin

The Yard has had its final testing today, prior to being taken down and packed ready for the trip on Friday. Martin

Some buildings for garden line in 1/19 scale made using hand scribed PVC Foamex. Martin

These are in 7mm scale, I drew them up in Adobe Illustrator and cut them out of 2mm MDF on my desktop laser cutter. Pipework is Evergreen tubing with some 3D printed bends my friend produced for me on his resin printer. The electrical wiring is copper wire feeding MDF electrical boxes and junctions. Martin

We made some tweaks to the barriers to get them just where we want them, pleased with the result. An added bonus, I had some rubber end stops in stock left over from a car project which fit the pole. Neale has kitted out the new crane transmitter box, very pleased with how it has turned out. Far simpler and not as distracting as the original orange handset. A Brucie bonus is its fits the control panel shelf as well! The buildings are all back on the baseboard now. All I need to do now is service the rolling stock and weather the Class 08. If I get time a few little scenic bits to add to the layout. Then we will have a test running session next week to familiarise ourselves with operating, especially now that Neale has tweaked the lorry control handsets with different power curves for steering and drive and the crane with flatter curves. If all goes well, we shall be ready for Ally Pally in just over a weeks time and a magazine shoot in April. Martin

The latest bit of work on the layout is the wiring. We don't have a vast area of scenery, so I am trying to get as much included as possible. Whether the end result is worth the effort involved, only time will tell. I have used 0.7mm wire for the cabling and bent up cable clips from 0.45mm wire. It took a bit of trial and error to come up with a technique that gave consistent results for making these clips. They have a long spigot because this is passed through the building wall and bent over to hold the clip and wire in place, no glue required. Clips inserted with tweezers. This is then held down tight with the tweezer handle while the wire is bent over inside the building. The cabling is effectively floating above the wall surface, this means small pieces of paper can be slipped between wall and cable to mask while painting the cable. The cable is initially coated with a black marker pen prior to installation, this then seems to take black acrylic fine. A couple of installations, just a few more buildings to go now. Martin

A bit of below the scene work done this weekend. Not all shows provide barriers. We need them to stop people getting into our line of sight when operating the crane and lorries. It also keeps fingers away, the front edge of the layout has taken some punishment at shows. Takes hours to make and seconds to ruin. We welded up some strip and tube and used a set of tent poles for the bar. To attach the legs to the layout I used Rivnuts, one of those tools you don’t use much, but very useful when you do. For this purpose M6 nuts to match the rest of the bolts were used. It acts like a big pop rivet gun to fix the threaded inserts. Rivnut blanks The layout support on its back ready for drilling the rivnut holes. Rivnut insert loaded onto the expanding tool. The tool ready for action, it is just a simple operation of pushing the two arms together, this pulls the tool through the insert which collapses it and splays it behind the metal sheet. Job done. This leaves us room to walk along the front if required. Standing against the barrier with arms outstretched, I can just touch the baseboard edge. If the barrier is pushed, the thin strip along the floor bends up slightly taking the impact from the layout support. Martin

Back to the extractor units. For durability 8BA bolts were epoxied in place which had already been soldered to brass sheet, hopefully they won't detach. From scrap MDF bits from previous jobs, small packing pieces were cut. Their purpose just to hold the unit clear of the supporting foamboard during painting. Here mounted on foamboard prior to painting, keep it clear of the foamboard, which itself makes a very useful method of handling until painting and weathering are complete. Some of the units assembled, some brackets and electrical switch boxes. Ready for painting, the fronts held with double sided tape. All primed. Initial paint applied. First application of weathering, which then gets blended and feathered to taste. A before and after of this type of unit. Martin

For a while now we have wanted to make a new transmitter box for the gantry crane. One reason was because the current transmitter is far too complex. We only need forward/reverse, left/right and up/down, just three channels. It is too easy to accidentally hit a function button when picking up and putting down. At one show this happened and it changed the transmitter mode to 'Helicopter' and started to zero the channel that controls the hook, winding it up into the drum being unable to stop it! Luckily Neale saw what was happening and immediately cut the power to the crane itself to prevent disaster. The winding motor is strong enough the easily snap the chain. Another reason is the current handset is rather a bright orange and stands out a bit. The new transmitter box will be a mix of laser cutting and 3D printing, I did the laser bits first. Needing curved ends for comfort, I experimented with different settings for a 'Living Hinge' cut to enable the curving of a 2mm thick, solid MDF sheet. The best setting was 1.5mm spaced cuts, here shown with gravity alone forming a curve. The three main parts of the case cut out, my schoolboy maths came in useful at last to calculate the length of curve, I could then get the Living Hinges the correct length and the dovetail joints to meet up at the rear. The cutouts either end either end make up the access hatch once the outer is wrapped and assembled. Case hatch yet to be cut. The baseplate with the offset hole is for the 3D printed battery pack. Joystick holes and fixing holes are obvious. The rear hatch cover needed a lip to rest on and have captive nuts for fixing. Brass nuts soldered to scrap NS sheet were then epoxied to the frame. To enable me to accurately glue the lip to the case, I cut a jig to align the lip precisely. In this photo the hatch can be seen, below that the lip and alignment jig, not yet bolted in place. The jig in action while the glue sets. This resulted in a neat and accurate finish, not that it really matters, only we will see it, but I just like it to be right. It also shows the dovetail joint holding the case together. The whole case assembly did stay together without glue while I was checking the fit, I was pleased with that. Cover fixed in place with four brass CS bolts. From the front. This has now been coated with MDF sealer ready for painting, but we liked the raw look, so will not be painting it for now. Side by side with the transmitter it will replace. The box is now with Neale for fitting out. Martin

I have made some electrical switch box cabinets and junction boxes on the laser cutter and given them a coat of paint. Made a start on a power box for the gantry crane, mainly as something to cover the fixing bolt of the crane chassis! Laser cut some pipe end caps as a two part item. I kept them in frames to make the gluing together easier. Once dry they are then snipped out from the frame. Some of the new pipe runs with the laser cut end caps and brackets painted with primer. Tube is Evergreen with 3D printed bends. Now with the top coat applied. Here I am installing small wire pins, these are to help strengthen the fixing bonds to the building walls. I need to do this because the layout experiences all sorts of knocks and bangs while taken to exhibition, failure to do this quite often leaves you will detail parts fallen off on the layout, not a good start to a show. Martin

Just dropped on the Emblaser FaceBook page. The New Emblaser Pro is launching soon. Martin

Alongside this I have been working on some scenic details for the 16mm narrow gauge Industrial project in the planning. Mainly extractor or air con units, I scaled some down to 7mm, thinking it would be good to have some of these on The Yard. An early test in 2mm MDF of a grill, quite impressed on how fine my diode laser will cut. This one is in 0.6mm PolyBak. I made a kit of parts from 2mm MDF and 0.6mm PolyBak, although the support brackets are not shown here. Which made up into this unit. I quite enjoyed doing this and have an ever growing list of things I wish to cut. Martin

Back to the plot. I have always intended to add one more factory building to the layout, it is to occupy the space behind the tank building and close the gap at the rear to the currently last building. The basic drawings had been done for while, just couldn't be bothered to get on and build it. Not the easiest of spaces to deign a good fit, the adjacent buildings are not square to each other and it has to span the road that goes to the fiddle yard. A template of the footprint was cut from some scrap plastic sheet. The roadway was notched out to accommodate the walls. Since this photo was taken, more notching was required. A kit of parts was laser cut from 2mm MDF, 0.9mm PolyBak and some resin Port Wynstay windows I had in stock. With the other buildings removed, test positioning could take place. It was sprayed with some of Halfords finest red oxide primer with acrylic stippled on when dry. Grouted with fine filler tinted with acrylic. Which was wiped off until I was happy with the result. Now planted in position. Looking at this photo I have just realised I have forgotten the RSJ that goes across the roadway to support the building above, oh well, back to the work bench! Martin

It is that time again! An exhibition booking is looming, The London Festival of Railway Modelling, Alexandra Palace on 16 and 17 March. A start has been made on the 'To Do' list. I left the layout assembled in the workshop rather than packed away and covered up, over the Christmas period into January. When I ventured into the workshop I was treated to a surprise, the layout has mould! Some IPA and make up removing pads (having a wife and three daughters has its advantages), soon got rid of it. Martin

I prefer scribing DAS when dry, you don’t get any dragging, plus you can draw your scribe lines in pencil before committing to actual scribes.

We had a good show at the Beckenham and West Wickham Exhibition on Saturday. A local show for us, just half an hour from home. It was novel keeping to all the 20mph limits that have been put in place! It has always been my intention to add signage and pipework to the buildings, something I had planned to do over winter in readiness for Ally Pally next March. But the day job had a project that had been delayed over a week, so I had some time on my hands, I split this with the garden railway, so made a start on the signs and pipes. Guttering was first on the list, some old umbrella arms came in handy for the guttering, just needed some brackets. End caps were made from plasticard. Brackets I used to laser cut from Trolase, but lately I have struggled to get a clean cut, so these ones are cut from 0.9mm PolyBak, this is a resin impregnated board available from my local laser material suppliers of Hobart's. I bought in a stock and some in 0.6mm. I am really liking this material, very impresed with how fine I can get it with strength still remaining. One gutter bracket with a spigot to fit into a hole in the wall. It did not take long to gut a batch. These were initially stuck in place with CA, then boosted at the rear with epoxy resin to give strength and hold things in place when bounced around on the way to a show! For downpipes I used S&D castings and Evergreen tube, using foamboard to hold them in place while the Epoxy set. Sprayed with Halfords grey primer, the black part is for a sign, more of which later. Top coated with acrylic paint, then weathered before installing. I have always been a fan of building signage, especially industrial, I know, I must get out more! I had five to make, but only had time to do four. Three of them I mocked up on computer over photos of the buildings, then printed laser roughs to try on the model to see if I had got them right. No mystery to the company names, they are all operators of the layout. The first one I made was 'Brodie', this was the easiest, made using I think are Coopercraft moulded letters glued to the tank side. They were then weathered using oils, here in the photo I have nearly finished the top line. Here I am working on the last two panels, the technique is more about what you take off than what you put on using thinners in a dry brushing technique in reverse. Originally I wanted to use rub down lettering, but did not have the correct size in stock. Next up was 'Jackson'. this sign is mounted on the roof, I really like these type of signs with their support structure. I made up a kit of parts consisting of Slater's letters, some brass square tube and brackets and framework laser cut from PolyBak. Assembly was straightforward, if a little fiddly, using wicked in superglue later beefed up with epoxy. Sprayed with Halford's black primer. I scanned the letters, traced them in Adobe Illustrator, spaced them out, flipped them so the read back to front and printed out the result. This then became my positioning template to which the letters were taped to, then a thin line of epoxy applied where the cross beams would locate, then put them togther and left to dry off. This insured I got the spacing, spelling and orientation of the letters right first time. The end result. The letters looking like they are leaning over is lens distortion. Then the fun bit, painting and weathering a WIP here, mounted on some foamboard for ease of handling. The framework was eventually treated to some AK Interactive dirts filters. It was then fitted to the roof using 14BA bolts, not the easiest to do, especially when I forgot about strengthening pieces in the corner joint of the roof inside, you can guess where two of the bolt holes came through. You can just make out the hole about an inch from the end of the timber, right at the edge. I spent over half an hour carefully carving it away to get a nut on the bolt without damaging the building. Next sign was 'Castleton', for this I cut a template mask from PolyBak, I could have used card, but felt polyBak would stay flatter and more resilient to usage, plus it was already loaded in the laser. In this photo are the positive and negative masks, plus tape to form the bottom of the panel edges. Then it was a simple task of removing each letter in turn, affixing small blobs of Blutak and refixing the letters using the template as a guide for position. Once all the letters were in place, it was a simple task to remove the template and finishing the tape masking. Armed with neat Valejo white acrylic, a small flatty bristle brush and some tissue, it was a straightforward task of gathering some paint on the brush, removing most of it on the tissue, then gently stippling until the desired result was achieved. Ten minutes later I was left with this. The final sign was 'Coombs', similar to 'Castleton' but in the reverse format, so very quick to mask and do. I forgot to photograph the pipework, it was made from our own resin printed and laser cut originals to fit Evergreen tubing. These are a few photos of the end result which is starting to improve the look of the factories. There is a lot more pipework to do, along with electrical cable runs, lights and more signage etc. Martin

We enjoyed our day exhibiting The Yard. Very pleased with all the kind comments and interest shown in the layout and its operating features. Martin

Only two weeks to go until the show weekend. Martin